neutrophil-derived MMP-9 was found to mediate the release of larger VEGF isoforms not through cleavage but rather, and they demonstrated that MMP-9 was able to release biologically active VEGF165 from the ECM of colon cancer cells via cleavage of acetylheparin sulfate, which promotes tumor angiogenesis (121). This evidence concerns the gene MMP9 and malignant colon neoplasm.